158 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Mi 



You Can if You Will 



By F. Eric Millen 



OF all the beekeepers in this 

 country there are relatively 

 few w ho are securing a maxi- 

 mum crop of honej each year. In 

 some cases ignorance is the cause, in 

 other cases neglect, and the majority 

 of beekeepers would probably have 

 to be class.ed with the neglectful, he- 

 cause ignorance is, usually, the twin 

 brother of neglect. There are no 

 excuses for any of us keeping bees 

 these days unless we have the requi- 

 site knowledge with which to run 

 them profitably. Beekeepers can se- 

 cure, without cost, sufficient informa- 

 tion from Government and State 

 Mullet ins which will enable them to 

 learn the fundamentals of beekeep- 

 ing practice. However, we usually 

 find those beekeepers who are inter- 

 ested sufficiently to secure beekeep- 

 ing bulletins also realize that a few 

 dollars invested in other good bee- 

 keeping literature is a good invest- 

 ment. 



Why is it that we do not produce 

 larger crops of honey? I believe the 

 answer is that we lack the interest 

 and have too little ambition. Why 

 do we lack interest and ambition? 

 Because in so many cases our Cre- 

 ator and nature have been and are 

 too kind to us. With little effort we 

 can secure enough of this world's 

 goods to live and we remain satisfied. 

 Often it takes some serious happen- 

 ing to bring out the best part of our 

 make-up. 



In 1911 Mr. Harvey E. Nicholls, the 

 subject of this article, an Iowa bee- 

 keeper, had the misfortune to lose 

 both legs in a boiler explosion. Fig- 

 ure 1 shows us that our friend has 

 lost the right leg near the thigh, but 

 has the use of the left knee joint. 

 This accident happened when Mr. 

 Nicholls was 21 years of age, and 

 many of us would probably have 



cccssful 



given up the light and have been con- 

 tent tn live mi charity. Not so, how- 

 ever, in this ease ; the loss of his legs 

 gave him the impetus necessary to 

 make life successful, and while be- 

 fore the accident Mr. Nicholls' ambi- 

 tions were small, he soon realized 

 that life was ahead and that he had 

 to make good. 



In 1915 he secured a swarm of bees 

 and, although he secured no honey 

 that year, the bees were carefully 

 prepared and packed outside for 

 winter. Early in the 1916 season a 

 good book on beekeeping was pur- 

 chased and this book was studied in 

 conjunction with the manipulation of 

 the colony. Frequent visits were 

 also made to successful commercial 

 beekeepers living in the vicinity, and 

 much information was freely given 

 from this source. 



At the close of the season Mr. 

 Nicholls had 80 pounds of honey sur- 

 plus and had wisely refrained from 

 making increase. Slow but sure. The 

 single colony was again packed and 

 wintered well. Nineteen seventeen 

 opened and three more colonies were 

 purchased and transferred from their 

 old hives into standard 10-frame 

 hives. Two 2-pound packages of bees 

 were secured from the south and two 

 other colonies were worked on half 

 shares. During the season Mr. Nich- 

 olls worked for the Western Honey 

 Producers, assembling beekeeping 

 supplies and worked with the bees 

 at odd times. The close of that sea- 

 son found our friend with twelve 

 1 1 ill mies ami a crop i if 400 pounds of 

 honey. The twelve colonies were 



wintered successfully. 



The twelve colonies, together with 

 i wo iin ii e purchased, were m >\ ed five 

 miles from town in the spring of 1918. 

 '.i uli - t he afot emenl ii med fourteen 

 colonies, forty-five more were worked 

 mi shares, for half of the surplus 

 !i< iiuv only. Work at the suppb fat 

 tory was discontinued, except at odd 

 times, and the bees received the re- 

 quired attention. A second-hand 

 ford was purchased, on time, and the 

 and town madi 



hie. 



I he fi m it i rii colonies w ere in- 



ed in t w enty, and t he foi tj fi \ i 



• hi shares increased to eighty-five, 



• ing a pari i eemenl 



when thi ere ta ken in hand. A 



man was hired for six days, during 



the season, to help lift the heavy su- 

 pers into the Ford and assist with 

 other work in the apiary. 



From May 1 to September 9, 1918, 

 the returns from the bees, together 

 with the odd work amounted to just 

 over $800. Just look at Fig. 1 again 

 and then one can imagine under what 

 apparent difficulties Mr. Nicholls 

 worked. I say apparent, because our 

 friend did not stop to say "I can't," 

 or "impossible," but went ahead and 

 made the undertaking a success. Von 

 can if }-ou will. 



Figure 2 shows how it is possible 

 for Mr. Nicholls to move around 

 from place to place as he so desires. 

 An artificial leg fitted to his left 

 limb enables him to drive his ford 

 just as easily and surely as any ot 

 us with two sound legs, and distance 

 is no object to our friend. 



Mr. Nicholls has not only made a 

 good start to become a successful 

 beekeeper, but at the age of 29 he is 

 putting himself through high school, 

 another very creditable feature. Al- 

 though just making a start in life, 

 our friend believes in tithing and 

 gives 10 per cent of his earnings to 

 charitable purposes, besides this last 

 summer a sister and grandmother 

 were partially supported. 



When I secured this brief history 

 1 realized that some of our soldier 

 boys home from the war, who might 

 he partially disabled, may be inter- 

 ested in knowing what Mr. Nicholls 

 has accomplished. We cannot all be 

 beekeepers, but we can be useful citi- 

 zens. To those of us who are bee- 

 keepers this article should certainlj 

 awaken the desire to succeed, and 

 you can if you will. 



Iowa State College, Ames, la. 



of 



th 



N 



But 

 try. 



Th 

 lishe 

 day, 

 upi H 



Robbing 



By C. P. Ii.ida.it 



They were in truth great ras- 

 s, ami belonged to thai class 

 people who find things before 

 \ are lost." Grimm. 



O, bees are not great rascals, 



although thej sometimes "find 



things before they are lost." 

 this i- due i" their great indus- 



ere is hardlj a text book pub- 

 ,l on beekeeping, at the present 



that does not have a chapter 

 robbing and how to prevent it. 



